september

Books

State Tectonics

A fantastic conclusion to the Centenal Cycle Trilogy. I wish I could read a few more books from this universe, which I always figure is a great sign with any speculative fiction series. I keep recommending this trilogy to friends, both as an interesting political system, and as a gripping techno-political thriller with some truly rad female characters. I didn’t love every PoV character from State Tectonics as much as I did the previous two books, but that makes sense, as this book was about new beginnings, to a degree.

Convenience Store Woman ### ***

Wow. This book was a lot more bizarre than I expected based on the recommendations I’d read—more Abe than H. Murakami. I loved the narrator, and the rich descriptions of convenience store life. This book was hilarious and wild. One of my favorites this year.

Would You Rather

A touching memoir of coming-out and learning that past dating disinterest was just latent sapphism, lol. There’s a lot to love about this book, and also quite a bit of cringe. It’s a coming-of-age in a way, and overall I’d recommend it to young dykes and old, or anyone wondering if their sexuality is “real”.

Worth the Wait ### *

This was a corny AF lesbian romance. Lots of random sex, and a main plot of “the cute femme can’t come out bc reasons”. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was an easy read.

Record of a Spaceborn Few

This was a much slower-paced book than the previous two, and was largely a slice of life about Exodans—the humans who left Earth to take their chances in the universe after Earth became uninhabitable. I enjoyed the various characters, the queer relationships, and the color added to this way of life. Sometimes it’s nice to have a space scifi book that isn’t full of lasers and danger.

Movies

A Simple Favor

What a silly, fun movie. It ends up in kind of a weird, messy state by the end, as if Feig is like “wait, what if they don’t remember I made Bridesmaids?!?”, but I generally enjoyed seeing Blake Lively be a cool babe, while Anna Kendrick does her thing. All the side-characters were fun, and even though it felt long, it was also consistently enjoyable.

Blindspotting

This is the third movie I’ve seen this year that was shot in Oakland, and I loved it. There is so much intensity, and so many parts that made me hold my breath, but everyone in this, especially Daveed Diggs, just showed-up and did an outstanding job. The criticism of gentrification in this felt more present and painful than Sorry to Bother You, and the raw emotional energy between family and friends here was so good.

The Nun

Lol, this ridiculous series. My friend got me into this while I was recovering from a surgery last year by asking me to watch all the preceding movies before we went to see one of the Annabelle ones. This series delivers spooky times, jump-scares, and a universe completely devoid of a loving god. I’m always down for a movie where the evil folks win, and this series is suitably unclear about who actually comes out on top, so I just claim it for the demons.

The Endless

What a bizarre, fantastic film. I loved the world and magic of this movie, as well as the general sense of eerie inevitably. I’m excited to see the previous film as well. The shots of this film are a mix of dutch angles, handheld, and some neat CGI. There’s quite a bit of upsetting stuff in this film, but it’s also a fun ride.

47 Meters Down

Mandy Moore has never scuba-dived, but on a vacation to Mexico, her asshole friend convinces her to scuba in a cage with sharks to forget a man. It goes about as poorly as you’d think. I loved every claustrophobic minute of this. Fuck the ocean, I’m sticking to the rivers and the lakes that I’m used to.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

A cute anime about a young girl who stumbles into the world of witchcraft. Very reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle, but with a less encompassing world.